Effect of dietary supplementation of Ajwain, hot red pepper and black pepper on the performance, haemato-biochemical and carcass characteristics of Japanese quail

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of dietary supplementation of herbal feed additives viz. ajwain, hot red pepper and black pepper on growth performance, nutrient utilization, haematobiochemical parameters and carcass characteristics in Japanese quail. A 5-week feeding trial was conducted in a completely randomized block design on growing Japanese quail from (2 to 6 weeks of age). Apart from the control group (C), without herbal feed additives, treatment groups T1, T2 and T3 were supplemented at 0.5% ajwain, 0.5% hot red pepper and 0.25% black pepper, respectively in feed where each group was divided into 2 replicates of 15 Japanese quails in each. The results indicated that hot red pepper improved body weight (P<0.05). Better feed conversion ratio was observed in hot red pepper supplemented group with maximum performance index on supplementation of black pepper. Blood haemoglobin percentage was similar in all the treatment groups. The serum lipid profile in terms of cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides reduced significantly (P<0.05) while HDL cholesterol increased significantly (P<0.05) in Japanese quail by supplementation of hot red and black pepper. Serum total protein improved significantly (P<0.05) on dietary treatment with red and black pepper. The Japanese quail of all the groups had statistically similar (P>0.05) utilization of crude protein while significantly (Pd”0.05) minimum fat utilization was observed on supplementation of feed additives. The carcass characteristics in terms of dressing percentage increased significantly (P<0.05) and heart, liver and gizzard weights were significantly (P<0.05) highest on black pepper supplementation. The juiciness and overall acceptability of meat of Japanese quail was significantly higher (P<0.05) on addition of dietary red pepper however, texture of quail meat was similar in all the groups. Based on the results it was concluded that the hot red and black pepper could be supplemented as potential herbal feed additive in broiler Japanese quail diet for better performance in terms of weight gain, feed efficiency ratio and carcass characteristics.